Opening the event, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "The concern I have is that blinkered nationalist views may gain ground once again".

A balloon depicting the US President Donald Trump wearing a diaper, flies over the heads of people protesting against the US leader at the Place de la Republique in central Paris. By putting our own interests first, with no regard for others, we erase the very thing that a nation holds dearest, and the thing that keeps it alive: its moral values.

Sunday, Macron rebuked nationalism in perhaps another dig at Trump who has been vocal about his "America First" agenda.

"This was a war in which India was not directly involved yet our soldiers fought world over, just for the cause of peace", Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter.

For President Donald Trump in Paris, America First meant largely America alone.

Rather than address the barbs, they focused on increased North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military burden-sharing.

"Old demons are reawakening, ready to sow chaos and death", he said, warning of how ideology, religion and a disregard for facts could be exploited.

"Each of these marble crosses and Stars of David marks the life of an American warrior-great, great warriors they are-who gave everything for family, country, God, and freedom", Trump said.

The Veterans Day speech came a day after Trump was criticized for failing to visit a different American cemetery about 60 miles (100 kilometers) outside of Paris on Saturday because rain grounded the helicopter he had planned to take. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited security protocols for the presidential motorcade's solo trip down the grand flag-lined avenue, which was closed to traffic.

Instead, he said history would remember the image of multiple world leaders whose countries were once at war gathered in peace under the Arc.